South Korea proved to be India’s nemesis for the second time at the Tokyo Olympics as the men’s recurve team of Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav succumbed to the archery powerhouse 0-6 in the quarterfinals at Yumenoshima Park on Monday.
Earlier, the mixed team of Jadhav and Deepika Kumari was ousted, going down to their S Korean rivals. They went on to pick the gold medal in both events. The men’s team, however, began the day well getting past Kazakhstan troika of Denis Gankin, Ilfat Abdullin, Sanzhar Mussayev 6-2 in the first round of the elimination stage.
But they made a shaky start against the S Korean team of London 2012 champion Oh Jin Hyek, Kim Woojin and the youngest archer at Tokyo Olympic, 17-year-old Kim Je Deok, when Das opened for India with an 8.
Although Jhadav and Rai backed up well hitting 10s, none of the Indians could hit a 10 in the second round, which led South Korea to win the first set 59-54. India did make some improvement getting 57 in the second set, but that was not enough as the Koreans repeated their score of 59.
India faltered again in the third set managing just 54 in spite of their rivals shooting well below par at 56. Bengal boy Das was totally off colour as he failed to hit even a single 10 in three sets in the quarters. Just hours earlier, he led from the front finding six 10s to take India past Kazakhstan.
His teammates did provide him good support with Jhadav hitting four 10s and veteran Rai, in his third Games appearance, getting three 10s. But a single error proved costly.
Overall while the S Koreans shot 13 10s, India could manage only 7. On the other hand while 8 was S Korea’s lowest shot, which they hit once, India had four such scores.
